Ambitious plans to set up a multi-million-pound university campus in Barrow have taken a step forward.
The scheme would see the University of Cumbria build a site off Buccleuch Dock Road in the town.
It is hoped the campus can reap ‘immense social and economic benefits’ for the borough and retain and attract young people to work in Barrow.
The plan was considered by a meeting of the borough council’s planning committee yesterday.
It was recommended for approval ‘in principle’, but there were issues over plans for sustainable transport and for mitigating flood risk.
In a pre-meeting report, a spokesman for Cumbria County Council’s highways department recommended refusal of the application ‘with regret’.
The spokesman said insufficient information had been provided and that further consideration was required to improve pedestrian and cycle routes to the site.
He said: “Due to the existing issues with parking and the proposal that the majority of the students will be coming from BAE, where it has been calculated 71 per cent of staff come to the area via a car, we have requested that a robust car parking strategy and green travel plan is required to better understand these figures.”
Among the measures that should be included in the travel plan, he says, are electric vehicle charging points and secure cycle parking. The university campus would be constructed on BAE Systems operational land next to the waterfront. A BAE storage building would be partially demolished to make way for the new building.
A spokesman for the county council, commenting in its capacity as the lead local flood authority, said more information was required to remove the possibility of flooding. The county council recommended the application for refusal.
However, case officer Maureen Smith said the economic and social benefits scored highly in the planning balancing exercise.
She said the campus design was of a high standard and that it would constitute a unique, contemporary building along the waterfront in contrast against the surrounding anonymous industrial sheds.
But, she acknowledged that there remained unresolved issues around drainage and a lack of ‘adequate’ cycling and walking provision.
She recommended that planning committee members supported the principle of the scheme subject to the resolution of issues around drainage, car parking and accessibility for pedestrians and cyclists.
She also advised delegated authority to determine the application be given to the borough council’s head of development management.
University of Cumbria vice chancellor Professor Julie Mennell said: “Planning permission is a key milestone towards realising our ambition to develop a new university campus in Barrow. Some issues remain but we continue to work collaboratively with others and seek to resolve them so our shared ambitions of enhancing local education opportunities progress.
“The campus and wider Barrow Learning Quarter will be transformational, to the learners who will access and aspire towards HE and, also, contribute to the area’s future prosperity and growth. Innovative, inclusive and inspirational facilities and provision will enhance vitality and vibrancy.
“The new campus will also increase the accessibility, reach and impact of our academic offer. It will offer new progression opportunities into and participation in higher education for young people and others, driving our mission to transform the lives and livelihoods of our communities and beyond.”
The University of Cumbria is working with employers and academic partners to co-create course programmes in areas to support long-term higher skills need, upskilling and reskilling the workforce now and for the future.
The university will base a new academic area – its Institute of Advanced Manufacturing, Engineering and Computing, led by a director and two professors – in Barrow. Initially offering university-level programmes in these areas, plans are to develop other provision to support wider region skills needs.
It is expected that the main construction work on the university campus will begin next year, with completion in summer 2024.
